Wednesday, 26 October 2011

At the Trafford Center, Manchester on Saturday 29th October you can go along and meet the man himself.

Well kind of.......

You can get to interact with a virtual Green Giant and get to meet olympic and commonwealth superstar Colin Jackson CBE. He has teamed up with the legendary Green Giant to get families aiming high in the North West this half-term.

There will be lots of great giveaways too, so if your local get down to the event and prove to the Green Giant just how healthy you and your family are.

As I said in the previous post there are lots of tip and advice on the Green Giant Facebook, so pop over and 'like' the page to follow all the up coming events.

Don't forget visit my previous post and comment leaving your tips to be in with a chance of winning a Able and Cole hamper for your family.

I love this face. Since I took this photo nearly two years ago now Tabitha has changed so much, she is I think barely recognisable from this picture. She is now a chubby faced two year old with a fully formed personality and cheekiness to match.

When I took this picture I was in total awe of her, she was such a facially well structured baby (does that make sense?). I thought I would have a chubby squishy faced cherub and Tabitha was born with a proper little face, I was I admit, quite shocked by it. She had stolen my nose clean off my face and was lifted from my stomach eyes wide open and clinging to the doctors hand like a monkey, I didn't expect that.

Everytime I look at her face I wonder what she will look like at 8, 15, and 21.

Tuesday, 25 October 2011

I am not the biggest fan of Halloween, in the village I grew up in it generally meant people threw eggs at each other so I tended to give it a miss.

However this year Tabitha has a party at nursery and I figured I had better at least get her involved. I was over the moon when Poundland approached me with the offer of a voucher to deck her out in their range for her party.

Sunday, 23 October 2011

I have been blessed with a 'good eater' Tabitha loves her food she always has, except for the first three weeks of breastfeeding actually but thats a whole other blog post. She will eat every last scrap on her plate then ask for more and loves vegetables and fruit with a passion.

Over the years working in childcare I have however come up against many children who aren't, and many parents who are desperate to get their children eating healthier food.

I have come up with several techniques and tools for parents in my time.

One we made for all our children was a 5 a day tracker; a laminated picture of a plate with 5 white circles on it. Along with the plate each child was given a set of laminated fruit and vegetable images which they could stick into the plate after they had eaten each daily portion, we left it to the parents to decide the reward scheme that ran alongside it.

This post is a chance for parents to share their own ideas when meeting the challenge of ensuring our children get their 5 a day, do you hide the vegetables? Do you have mealtimes battles everyday?

The challenge of raising children who hopefully grow up understanding the importance of having fruit and vegetables in their diet, and having them enjoy the flavours and diversity of a healthy diet is one most parents will agree on.

Even if we pop to the kebab house occasionally, Ssssssh.

For your chance to win an Abel & Cole vegetable box , write your best tips/hints/advice in the blogger comment box before the 14/11/2011. Entrants must be over 18 and residents of the UK or ROI - Prize is one Abel & Cole vegetable box (no cash alternative) -There will be 1 winner. The winning post will be decided based on the following criteria: uniqueness/creativity/originality. By entering the competition, you agree that your hint/tip may be shared on Green Giant’s Facebook page and used by Green Giant in any other media.

Click the image below to visit Green Giants Facebook page for more tints and tips.

Friday, 21 October 2011

Its been quiet on Mumra recently, I'll admit it. I have been working hard and Tabitha has been busy as well.

Nursery is now a huge part of her life and she is frankly a bit gutted when the weekend comes and she doesn't get to see her friends or the staff.

I am so happy to see her so engaged by the girls who look after her on a daily basis and the way she talks of them with such affection it makes going to work everyday almost worthwhile on its own.

Tabithas reaction to nursery has made me realise the flipside of working as a nursery nurse for so many years and I hope that other parents have felt the same way about my care of their children over the years. I feel really strongly that Tabitha will be a more rounded individual for her developing relationships with her peers and her teachers, there is no doubt in my mind that she is learning more from their daily interactions than I could have offered her as a stay at home mum.

I know lots of mums will read this and think what a shame I feel that way; seeing these comments as some kind of confession that I think I am a crap mum. It is not the case, I rock as a mum but I cannot fault the love the staff show for my daughter and seeing her love them in return is a beautiful thing.

I reckon all us working mums have a member of staff at our child's' nursery who make our lives a whole lot easier and it doesn't seem enough to give them a box of chocolates at christmas in thanks.

I could gush for ages about what they really have given Tabitha and us as a family but I won't. I don't really think anyone who hasn't experienced it would quite understand.

The parents out there who do are the ones reading this, thinking of their childs favourite nursery worker with a big smile on their face, nodding your head along with my words.

Nursery Nurses of the world you do an amazing job and for that millions of parents and I thank you from the bottom of our hearts.